I just moved next to UW for my undergrad, so I decided to have a look at Google's streetview. The place has really changed in the past ten years. With the enrolment increasing 50% (about 10k) for an average term (no idea about WLU), the off-campus "student ghetto" has gotten a lot denser, especially with the university not too enthusiastic about building new residence buildings. University and nearly every cross street along it between UW and WLU have gone from single family housing to mid-rise (10-15 story) buildings, and there are still a few cranes around. Even my shithole of an apartment was built within the decade. An interesting google search tells me that this stretch of Waterloo has almost half the off-campus housing nationwide. A good chunk of the units are owned by huge landlords/slumlords (with reassuring names like Accomod8u or RentCorp). That being said, most of the newer buildings look pretty decent visually.
As for access to uptown Waterloo (as somebody mentioned on this thread 13 years ago!), the ION train goes straight there from campus, and its normally free with a student card. Not much use right now, with the area mostly devoid of students, let alone business. I suspect a good chunk of the student-oriented businesses will fail, especially if spring term is cancelled as well.
Back to the topic, I'll try to take a few photos of the area from a friend's apartment.